This is a simple tutorial stolen from a thread where Jaderail broke it down nicely. I had seen two people ask so I thought it may be beneficial to just put this up here with the title "TUTORIAL" by it.

1. Load your item
2. Select it in the Scene Tab
3. Open your Surfaces tab and in it, open your item.
4. You 'll get a list of all the different Material zones the item has. Select the one you wish to change.
5. A list of properties opens.
6. In your Content Folder or your Smart Content folder to find your shaders
7. Click or double click the shader. You might see it applied in your viewport or it just might go some off white color. Some shaders only show up properly at the time you Render. You can do a quick check with Spot Render.

What I would like to see is an explanation on how to make your own shaders in DAZ3D. Does anyone know how who is willing to share?

Comments

Khory states:"I generally start off with by using the the surface selection tool. That way I know I have the object selected as well. I also use right click and look at the list to see if I can use that to select the surfaces I want to change. And don’t forget that you can do multiple select holding down the shift key."

and

"Oh and I forgot to mention that if your fiddling and not changing every single setting you can select just the parts you need to work on. For example you can select bump, diffuse and specularity 1 and not have to see the rest of the details."

scorpio64dragon states:"I can’t see that anyone has mentioned how to keep textures when applying shaders.Hold down the CTRL key while applying the shader and select ‘ignore from the drop down box."

maclean states (from another thread on creating a Zero Materials Button):
"A Shader Preset is simply a single material, as opposed to a Materials Preset which is multiple materials. Shader Presets can be applied to any selected material(s), regardless of name, whereas a Material Preset will only apply to materials with the same name(s).

So, for example, if you save a Materials Preset for a human figure, it will only work on another figure with those materials. That’s why I said saving a Shader Preset is better. You can apply it to any materials at all, no matter what names they have, and it will work on human figures, buildings, props, etc.

To save a preset
1. Select any prop or figure.
2. Select any material on it (in the Surfaces pane).
3. Set up the material the way you want it (white or whatever)
4. Go to the Save menu (in the content pane) and choose Shader Preset, then name it.

To apply a preset
1. Select a prop or figure.
2. Select the material(s) you want to affect. (To select more than one material, hold down CTRL and click their names)
3. Apply the Shader Preset you saved

Note that you can also choose to save a Custom Preset in the dialog. That means you could (for example), only choose to affect the Diffuse Color by making it white, but leave all the other settings unchanged. That would leave things like Bump maps in place. To do that, just choose Custom, expand the channels and only check the ones you want to affect. "

Pendraia wrote:

"Shader Mixer and Shader Builder are now consistent (by default) in that the brick/block network flows from left to right, like a[n English] book is read. From start (the input - either user or programmatic) to finish (the final output or the "root"). If you prefer the flow of the network to be in the opposite direction, where the roots/outputs are on the left and all of the inputs flow in from the right, you can change the default for any new shaders in Edit > General Preferences. Each shader can be changed separately in Edit > Shader Preferences. "

Szark then said:"Unfortunately the Shader Mixer has changed so much I am finding it hard to continue my self education even using the recipes above."

Slimer_J_Spud states: "One question that comes up from time to time is, if you apply some exotic shader and go, “Eeewww how do I get back to where I was?” The simplest answer (other than Ctrl-Z) is to apply a material preset or pz2 file that sets it back to some simple shader like Daz Studio Default. From the Surfaces tab, you can change the materials used, but I don’t think you can change the shader directly. That’s why applying a saved MAT pose, or shader preset will take you back to a simpler shader. Then you discover that Ctrl-double click on the shader trick. Once I tweak something the way I like it, I always save a MAT pose in dsa format as a starting point for future fiddling."

MattyManx also said:"Speaking of Ambiant Occlusion, pwSurface2 also has AO

I generally start off with by using the the surface selection tool. That way I know I have the object selected as well. I also use right click and look at the list to see if I can use that to select the surfaces I want to change. And don't forget that you can do multiple select holding down the shift key.

Oh and I forgot to mention that if your fiddling and not changing every single setting you can select just the parts you need to work on. For example you can select bump, diffuse and specularity 1 and not have to see the rest of the details.

I'll jump in and say I'm very happy to see this covered in more detail. I just give a quick answer to help Users solve the one problem they have at that time. I hope my help encourages them to learn more on their own. I think this should be covered in depth.

And Thank you for the Mention, but it was not needed.

I'm still NEW to DS4.5P so all the info I never had will help others like me in the days ahead.

I had a post about why there is no "Zero Materials Button" and maclean dropped this bit of wisdom...

"A Shader Preset is simply a single material, as opposed to a Materials Preset which is multiple materials. Shader Presets can be applied to any selected material(s), regardless of name, whereas a Material Preset will only apply to materials with the same name(s).

So, for example, if you save a Materials Preset for a human figure, it will only work on another figure with those materials. That’s why I said saving a Shader Preset is better. You can apply it to any materials at all, no matter what names they have, and it will work on human figures, buildings, props, etc.

To save a preset
1. Select any prop or figure.
2. Select any material on it (in the Surfaces pane).
3. Set up the material the way you want it (white or whatever)
4. Go to the Save menu (in the content pane) and choose Shader Preset, then name it.

To apply a preset
1. Select a prop or figure.
2. Select the material(s) you want to affect. (To select more than one material, hold down CTRL and click their names)
3. Apply the Shader Preset you saved

Note that you can also choose to save a Custom Preset in the dialog. That means you could (for example), only choose to affect the Diffuse Color by making it white, but leave all the other settings unchanged. That would leave things like Bump maps in place. To do that, just choose Custom, expand the channels and only check the ones you want to affect. "

I want to know how to create a shader like the LIE series that applies additional texture overlays to any character skinshader you have loaded and leaving the original shader setting in place. I know how to do multi layer editing, but I want a shader instead of manually doing it.

One question that comes up from time to time is, if you apply some exotic shader and go, "Eeewww how do I get back to where I was?" The simplest answer (other than Ctrl-Z) is to apply a material preset or pz2 file that sets it back to some simple shader like Daz Studio Default. From the Surfaces tab, you can change the materials used, but I don't think you can change the shader directly. That's why applying a saved MAT pose, or shader preset will take you back to a simpler shader. Then you discover that Ctrl-double click on the shader trick. :-) Once I tweak something the way I like it, I always save a MAT pose in dsa format as a starting point for future fiddling.

"Shader Mixer and Shader Builder are now consistent (by default) in that the brick/block network flows from left to right, like a[n English] book is read. From start (the input - either user or programmatic) to finish (the final output or the "root"). If you prefer the flow of the network to be in the opposite direction, where the roots/outputs are on the left and all of the inputs flow in from the right, you can change the default for any new shaders in Edit > General Preferences. Each shader can be changed separately in Edit > Shader Preferences. "

There should not be that much out of date if any really. In DS4, features may have been renamed or things moved and new things added but 99% of the over all functions have remianed the same (from my observation anyways)

I want to know how to create a shader like the LIE series that applies additional texture overlays to any character skinshader you have loaded and leaving the original shader setting in place. I know how to do multi layer editing, but I want a shader instead of manually doing it.

I think: Yes. Compose layers with DS Default Material (or brick with skinshader's parameters) using mix function. Some layers must be Image bricks with transparencies, another with Image you want add matching with transparencies. When you save your shader as preset you can decide which parameters/layers to include. If you apply a shader preset with partial parameters saved over a shader with complete parameters (or matching parameters) only partial parameters are override.